Massaging has been used over the centuries to relieve various muscle, tendon, and other connective tissue problems. The massaging, kneading, and pressing of muscles fibers modifies and manipulates the muscle tissue that benefits the muscles, the nerves, health of the muscle tissue due to improved blood circulation, removal of waste material from the muscle and connective tissues, and improvement in human body motion and movement. Accordingly, numerous devices are known in the art for massaging the human body.
The fibrous tissue that encloses and separates muscle layers is identified as myofascial tissue. A myofascial trigger point is defined as an irritated area of that tissue, characterized as a taut band of muscle layers that can be very tender and often radiates pain to other areas of the body. Trigger points can be latent, causing stiffness, posture distortion, and motion and movement restriction. Individuals with myofascial pain and related trigger points experience pain in muscle areas, muscle knots and decreased range of motion as well as movement restrictions. Furthermore, these trigger points can result in restricted blood flow through and around the muscle in that vicinity of the trigger point. That blood flow restriction produces significant pain, restricted motion and disability in a person. Currently, there are several ways to treat and relieve trigger points. These ways include physical therapy, massage therapy, acupuncture, active release techniques, and pharmacological treatment. However, these therapies can be expensive. Massage treatment appears to provide a suitable avenue for dealing with these trigger point issues. Trigger points can be released with steady pressure to the trigger point with sufficient force and duration to loosen knotted muscle fibers and improve blood flow into the affected area. Ideally, enough pressure is applied until the patient or oneself cannot tolerate any additional pressure. Unfortunately, particularly for deep tissue massages, the amount of force sometimes required to apply a sufficient amount of pressure to muscle tissue is more than some people are able to provide on their own.
In addition, massage treatment may also be too expensive for some patients to rely upon for a sufficient length of time to address adequately the myofascial pain suffered by the patient or oneself. Accordingly, massaging devices can assist individuals to perform massages to address and/or release these trigger points as well as improve mobility within the body.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems with the prior art as discussed above.